In the manufacturing environment, various systems are employed in order to operate machinery and transport goods. In order to achieve consistent output and continuity in the various systems, frequent maintenance and trouble shooting is often required. One manor of maintaining machinery is to wait until a failure has occurred in a particular component and then replace that component on an as-needed basis. Such maintenance, however, often requires untimely interruptions of the production process leading to costly down time.
Accordingly, there has been a growing trend in machinery maintenance to employ preventative maintenance procedures so that a machine is not brought down by an untimely failure. Instead, maintenance may be performed during planned down times with various components being serviced in an efficient process. However, since preventative maintenance often requires replacement of components before they actually fail, it must be determined which part is in need of replacement or repair and when. One way to determine the replacement scheduling of components would be to assign a particular cycle life to a component and simply replace that component after it has achieved its predetermined cycle life. However, how long a component will remain operationally effective depends on a variety of factors. For example, in a pneumatic system, the level of contamination in the pressurized air, the lubrication used, the operating pressure, ambient environment, and cycle speeds are just a few of the factors, which will influence cycle life. Accordingly, this method of preventative maintenance can lead to the replacement of parts, which are in fine working order creating a wasteful and relatively expensive procedure.
There have been attempts to use more sophisticated means of predicting when a component will fail in a particular system. One such method of predetermining component failure is set forth in EP 0740805 A1. The system set forth in the patent publication includes the use of a transducer, a learning mode, data collection at predetermined multiple points within a cycle, and memory operable during a learning mode. During a cycle digital sample signals may be taken at 100 to 1000 points of the cycle. It also includes a means for providing permissible ranges of values at the predetermined points in comparison between actual data and data of a learning mode and means to provide an output signal if the actual data exceeds the permissible data on predetermined points. This method, however, requires significant memory space in order to store the many data points in the cycle. In addition, high computational speed is needed for comparing the data at each point in the cycle with the predetermined range of data values. Complex mathematical statistical evaluation is also required.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,465 is directed to an on-line valve diagnostic monitoring system. The system senses operational characteristics of a valve and provides a diagnosis of the aberrations in the system characteristics. Multiple sensors are used which then signal to a data acquisition system which can be transmitted to remote locations. In a pneumatically controlled valve, a pressure sensor or flow meter may be used to detect the air pressure required to actuate the valve. A stem strength sensing means for directly sensing tension and compression of the valve stem is also required for sensing the position of the valve and travel the valve stem. Accordingly, various sensors are used and a significant amount of data is collected.
In addition, the use of individual system characteristics has heretofore proven to be unacceptable for providing a reliable picture of system performance for determining periodic maintenance schedules. For example, in a pneumatic system, pressure measurements in the supply and exhaust lines of a valve or a cylinder only deliver information about the cylinder functions which are in most cases independent of valve functions. While pressure measurements may provide diagnostic information with regard to cylinder function, it does not provide sufficient diagnostic data for valve functions.
Flow measurements in a supply line in a pneumatic circuit delivers information about the functions of the entire pneumatic circuit. The information about cylinder functions would be limited for a time depending function, thus not permitting to differentiate between cylinder failures and other possible failures, e.g., malfunction of valve, clogged silencer, etc. The flow measurement improves the diagnosis for pneumatic circuit, but still does not provide sufficient diagnosis data for all functions.
Another measurement which can be taken is cycle time for a complete cycle of the circuit. The cycle time measurement delivers information about the functions of the entire pneumatic circuit, including information about cylinder and valve functions. However, this cycle time does not provide sufficient diagnostic data to determine whether a particular component is nearing failure.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for evaluating a cyclical system in order to determine when preventative maintenance should be performed. It is further desirable to provide such a method and apparatus which requires minimal collection of data and can be easily and inexpensively employed.